


Love In A Time Of Political Chaos

by ProstheticLoVe



Series: Of These Changing Times [2]
Category: Veep (TV)
Genre: F/M, Pregnancy, Pregnancy prompts, Season 1-6, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-16
Updated: 2018-07-16
Packaged: 2019-06-11 04:29:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15307509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProstheticLoVe/pseuds/ProstheticLoVe
Summary: Four times Dan shows he loves Amy, and the one time he finally declares his love.





	Love In A Time Of Political Chaos

**Author's Note:**

> This is Part Two of a series, but it can be read alone too.
> 
> I used these pregnancy prompts from Tumblr:  
> -Amy with mood swings/nausea: “It’s not my fault I’m pregnant with the fucking antichrist.” ”Well, Amy if you didn’t want to birth the antichrist you shouldn’t have fucked a demon” - Selina, probably  
> \- Brookheimer’s reactions to the news (especially Amy’s Dad)  
> \- Dan switching back and forth between trying to seem like he doesn’t want much to do with the situation to being stupidly worried/overprotective of Amy. It gives Amy and everyone else whiplash. It doesn’t help that Amy really makes fun of Dan whenever he acts “paternal”.  
> \- There’s some sexist/demeaning rumors about Amy and her baby Daddy - Dan almost beats the shit out of one guy who takes it too far (imagine the Jonah/Dan/burrito scene. like that)  
> \- Amy overworks herself to the point where she ends up in hospital and is ordered bed rest. Dan is scared shitless and sides with the doctor much to Amy’s indignation. He’s actually quite supportive through it and tries to help Amy keep up with work from home. He semi-moves in with her as a result of this arrangement.
> 
> I hope you guys like it! It's a doozy. Let me know what you think! I keep binging Veep and coming up with new ideas so...

Dan Egan felt nauseous as he listened to the mother of his child throw up in the bathroom down the hall.

Instead of being in there helping her, he was perched on her couch with half-eaten cartons of Chinese on the coffee table in front of him. The television was on mute since they had been talking to each other, but as he heard the sounds of Amy in the bathroom, he wondered if he should turn it back up to drown her out because— _Jesus fuck_ she was loud.

While he knew women threw up when they were pregnant, he didn’t realize how much. Amy seemed to be blowing chunks every other hour and because of her tiny apartment, he could hear ever half-digested food particle hit the toilet water. As well as the sound of her hacking.

Needless to say, it wasn’t pretty and it wasn’t something he wanted to spend his night listening to. No matter how happy he was that Amy finally decided to talk to him. He was torn between wanting to help her because she was fucking pregnant and he was worried and also wanting to stay the fuck away for obvious reasons.

Shivering with disgust, he wondered if he should get up and go see if he could help her even though he couldn’t even stand the sounds of her yacking down the hall let alone beside him.

But then his mind went to the last time he tried, when she’d gotten sick at work, and she’d flipped a shit on him, which only made her get more sick.

He smirked at how he’d tried to tie her hair back with a ponytail holder he’d found in her purse. He wasn’t sure what she was more pissed off at; the fact he’d gone through her purse or that he thought she needed help.

Sighing, he got off the couch to walk around the New York City apartment.

There wasn’t much in there, some basic furniture and a bookshelf full of books he knew Amy couldn’t do without. It was relatively plain. No pictures, plants, or even that many cooking tools. He figured she either hadn’t really wanted to unpack or she knew they were headed back to D.C. any day now.

Amy was a weird mix of messy and minimalist.

While her messes could lead a trail all over the apartment—something that bothered him to no end—she also didn’t have that much stuff. Perhaps it was her lack of time due to spending every waking second at work or she just wasn’t that sentimental and thus she didn’t have that much.

This apartment was no different than the other ones she’d lived in during the time he’d known her.

It was his first time over, but it was much the same as her apartment had been in D.C. Boxes everywhere, a couple of dishes in the sink, the television turned on, a bookshelf overwhelmingly full, and take out containers on a halfway decent coffee table. Along with a couch, they had been occupying, and an easy chair—something he always found weird that she liked so much. There wasn’t much to the living and dining room hybrid.

He could see the kitchen from his position on the couch, which was pretty empty and there was a bar with stools separating the kitchen from the living/dining room.

There was no semblance of a dining room and Dan knew that was because she ate on the couch, didn’t eat at all, or ate at the bar while scrolling through Politico.

Getting up, he decided to explore the rest of what Amy deemed good enough to bring to New York.

He was surprised as he walked around the apartment to find that there was _What To Expect When You’re Expecting_ sitting on the counter in the kitchen. He noted that it had been turned over, as if to hide the cover. And he couldn’t help but smirk at that.

He picked it up and casually flipped through it taking note that she was in the middle of the first trimester of the section of the book, much as she was in real life.

As he heard another wave of sickness come over her from the bathroom down the hall, he wondered if he should just leave a note and make his way back to his own apartment. But the idea of leaving her was causing a weird tightening in his chest that he wasn’t interested in exploring—much like the many other times he’d felt that weird tightening in his chest when Amy was in trouble, hurting, or generally seeming unlike her usual abrasive self.

However, he knew that as much as he wanted to leave and escape the sounds of Amy getting sick, he knew he had to stay. If he left now, he’d have a shitstorm to deal with—another one.

And he’d rather avoid it, if possible.

They hadn’t really had a chance to talk since the night of the Madison Monroe dinner when he’d cornered her in her hotel room and they had both established that they were in this as a team. Sure, she said they would talk again and again, but the next morning was work, work, work. And then the next few days were all about Selina and then suddenly here they were, a full two weeks later and the only thing Dan knew was that they were keeping it, no one knew about it, and they had absolutely no plan.

Except that Amy was sicker than a bulimic with food poisoning.

It was just his luck that the first time they would have the chance to talk is on the one night she gets really sick.

Or maybe this is how she always is.

He didn’t fucking know.

He knew next to nothing about babies or morning sickness or general tips for caring for other people.

All he knew was that it was Amy and he was—unfortunately—concerned about her.

Not even really concerned…if there was a word that meant less than concerned or worried, but a little more than not caring, that was how Dan felt about the current situation.

As he heard the toilet flush from down the one hallway in the apartment, Dan finally decided to go check on her. There was no use waiting out here when she seemed to be bent on staying cooped up in her tiny blue tiled bathroom.

Besides, the apartment was so small he’d already raided the kitchen and the living/dining room. It was all stuff he expected to see.

A mess with minimal things, like someone who lived in a place half the time.

Which was the definition of Amy’s living situation.

There was nothing shocking or disturbing because it was Amy and most of her skeletons were…well he already knew her skeletons.

Much like she knew his.

Without knocking on the door, he yanked the knob open to find Amy sitting on the floor, her head resting against the wall with her eyes closed. Her legs where stretched out in front of her and the oversize Penn sweatshirt and shorts she had on made her look tiny. He stared at the alabaster skin of her legs and let his eyes slowly move up toward her face, which looked, if possible, even more white.

Without opening either eye, her pale, sickly face turned into a frown. “Get the fuck out, Dan.”

“Are you fucking okay? You sound like the baby is trying to escape via your mouth.”

“Seriously, get the fuck out. I already know you can hear me getting sick from out there.” She snapped.

“Amy, is this normal? Are you supposed to sound like you’re dying?”

She cracked an eyelid open and then opened both eyes fully so her bright blue orbs were directed on him. A look of heat in them that made the tightening in his chest react.

“I guess.”

“What do you mean, _you guess_? Haven’t you gone to the doctor?”

“Of course! Well, I haven’t gone for a check up yet, but I will—”

“Why the fuck not? Aren’t you supposed to do that kind of thing? Isn’t the doctor kind of an imperative fucking part of pregnancy?”

“I had to cancel and re-schedule and then cancel again. It’s fine, Dan, I’m only in the third month.”

She leaned her head back and against the wall. Slowly, she let her eyes close once more and she returned to how she had been before they had spoken.

“Do you need anything?” he asked quietly.

“For you to fucking leave.”

“Besides that.”

She sighed and opened her eyes again, “Can you get me a water?”

He glanced over at the sink to see if there was a cup there when Amy spoke up.

“I don’t keep any cups in here. They’re in the kitchen.”

“Why don’t you keep any cups in here?”

“Because I fucking don’t. Why am I putting something that goes into my mouth in the bathroom? That’s fucking gross.” She exclaimed.

“Where’s your fucking toothbrush, smart ass?” he replied with a smirk.

She rolled her eyes, “just get the water. My head is killing me.”

He huffed, but left the bathroom to go retrieve a glass of water, like she’d asked. When he returned, she was still resting against the wall, but this time her face was screwed up in a painful expression.

“Are you okay?” he asked again handing her the water.

She sighed, “yeah, I think so. I just feel really sick.”

“ _Is that normal_?” he asked again a tinge of something that was _definitely not_ worry lacing his words.

“I don’t fucking know, Dan.” She snarled and then took a sip of water before laying her head against the wall and sighing in contentment. “So fucking thirsty.” She muttered.

He was silent, watching her through curious eyes.

Amy wasn’t one to take care of herself.

Not generally.

There were many times when he knew the only reason she ate was because he’d suggested they get dinner or takeout. Other times, he knew she barely slept more than a few hours at a time. She woke up early and stayed up late. She worked all the time…she barely ate if she wasn’t being told to.

Was she going to be okay during this pregnancy?

Was…would something happen to her?

Maybe he should stick around more than he was already planning on. He needed to take care of Amy, after all and the…baby. He didn’t want anything to happen to them because…well it was Amy and she was part of the campaign and he was not going to fucking deal with Selina without Amy there.

That was the only reason he wanted to stick around…there was nothing else.

“Amy, I think we need to go to a doctor.” He said suddenly.

“Right now?” she asked confused.

“No, I mean in general. You said you cancelled the last one.”

“Yeah, and?”

“And let’s reschedule.”

“But Selina—“

“Fuck, Selina. This is about _our kid_.”

There was a ringing silence as he said that.

Amy had opened her eyes and they were trained on him, but when he said _our kid,_ she seemed to shut down and stare down at the glass in her hands.

“You need to take care of yourself.” He added as if she didn’t know.

“Dan, fuck off. I’ll make the doctor’s appointment, but…I’m not in the mood to talk about this.”

“You don’t ever want to talk about it!” he exclaimed shocking even himself at his sudden onset of annoyance and frustration.

“You never want to talk about us or the kid or the pregnancy. Ames, it’s been two weeks since the Madison Monroe dinner and—“

“What do you want to talk about?” she asked and the way she said it made him look at her, like really look at her. He took in the exhausted expression on her face, her fiery blue eyes, the tense set of her shoulders…he’d noticed her breasts were getting bigger and her taut body was becoming a little curvier.

She looked…she looked good, healthy, sexy…and all because _she_ was pregnant with _his_ kid.

The tightening in his chest made him take in a sharp breath of air and he looked away from her. His eyes found his own in the mirror and he wished he’d avoided seeing that, since he looked just as worn down and tired as Amy. But the look in his eyes…he looked so scared, so lost. It was an unsettling moment.

Without thinking, he sat on the edge of the tub, his hands resting on his knees, and nudged her with his foot. “Let’s start with how you knew you were pregnant.” He said quietly.

Without being able to really explain it, he really wanted to know everything. Not just when she knew, but how she was feeling, what her plans were…what their plans would be. He just needed to talk about something that would help him get a clearer picture of them and the baby and their situation.

He just needed answers so he could figure out his own next move.

“I was crying.” She said simply.

“What?”

“I was bored one night and began flipping through channels… _The Notebook_ was on. I’ve seen it many times and I just…started to cry. Like really cry. And I knew because I’d seen that movie so many times that there was something wrong with me. I’d never cried at it before. Sophie and my mom balled when we saw it in theaters, but I…I didn’t cry. I never got what the big deal was. They lived and then they died, that’s life.” She paused and took a drink of her water. “So I took a test because I couldn’t remember when my last period was and then it came back positive. I took a few more…eventually, I called the doctor and got it confirmed.” She blinked rapidly suddenly and then took another long drink of her water.

“Why do you want to keep the baby?” he asked without really knowing what he was asking.

She smirked and shrugged, “next question.”

“Wait, Ames—“

“Dan, if this is some long winded plan to get me to abort our baby, then you need to shut the fuck up now and leave. I want to do this.”

“It’s not—“

“Good.”

He nodded once and then stared down at the blue tiled floor and the shitty rug that was over it. He made a mental note to find her a new one because that one looked like someone had ran it over 50 times and threw it away before digging it out and putting it in her bathroom. But then he realized what he’d just thought about buying Amy a rug and shook his head because he didn’t know where the fuck that had come from.

“So we’re really doing this, huh?” he asked.

“Seems that way.” She whispered.

The bathroom was enveloped in silence both of them avoiding the other one’s gaze.

“What about us?” he asked a note of trepidation leaking into his voice.

He frowned hoping she didn’t pick up on that.

“What _about us_?” she responded looking up at him.

“Where do you see this going?”

“What are you talking about?”

He huffed and scowled because she was going to make him say it. “I mean…do you want to get ba—“

“Please don’t finish that sentence.” She snarled so viciously that he moved back from her and almost slipped into the tub.

She glared at him and he struggled to glare at her, but he had been taken aback by how she’d reacted to his suggestion. “I just mean that if we’re going to be parents—“

“Yeah and that’s all we’ll be. Listen, Dan, we created a kid together. That’s it. We’re not getting married, we’re not going to start dating, we’re not getting together at all. Us sleeping together was it. So erase whatever conniving goddamn thoughts you have in your head about us. It’s never going to happen. That ship has fucking sank to the bottom of the goddamn ocean and is never reemerging.” She said heatedly.

He stared at her and then down at his hands.

The silence returned and he was tempted to break it again, but before he could, Amy suddenly curled up in a ball with her head between her legs and her arms wrapped around them. Before he could process what was going on, he saw her shoulders shake and he heard quiet cries.

Alarmed, he stared at her not knowing what to do.

Did he wrap his arms around her?

Did he try to comfort her?

He hated comforting anyone.

“Amy, what’s wrong?” he asked urgently.

“Fucking goddamn hormones.” She wailed, her face buried so she couldn’t see him.

He smiled slightly, “well, when you’re pregnant with our demon spawn, then I guess that shits bond to happen.”

He heard her mumble through her cries, “Never fuck with the devil.”

Smirking, and without thinking too much about the fact he was comforting Amy, he wrapped his arms around her and buried his head in her hair. Closing his eyes, he felt her warm body shake against him and eventually, her cries died down.

It wasn’t until after, later that night when he was crawling into his own bed to go to sleep, did he realize he’d been kissing the top of her head to calm her down.

He smirked when he realized it had worked.

* * *

 

Dan stiffly held a bouquet of flowers in one hand and was trying to grab Amy’s hand with his other one. She kept shaking him off though and giving him a scowl.

“Stop what you’re doing.” She hissed as she slapped his grabby hand away again.

He smirked at the disgruntled look on her face. “Amy, we said we’d do this as a united front. Holding hands signifies that.”

“Well, I don’t know where your hands have been.” She snarked back.

He rolled his eyes and looked at the wooden door in front of them. “

This is already shitty enough that I had to come with you…” he mumbled.

“Well, it was also shitty when you encouraged me to have one more drink and two pink lines showed up informing me that I was pregnant with your demon spawn so…”

He rolled his eyes and tightened his grip on the flowers.

“Why do you have to be such a bitch?” he grumbled making another grab for her hand.

“Why do you have to be such a narcissist douchebag?” she retorted and turned to glare at him.

He smirked, “are you going to ring the doorbell?”

She paused, looked down at her hands, and took a deep breath. “Alright.”

However, they continued to stand on the steps of her parents’ house feeling uncomfortable.

“It’s like ripping off a band-aid.” He said filling the silence.

“Yes, right. Exactly.” She said nodding her head.

Except they continued to stand outside as if waiting for the go-ahead to ring the doorbell.

“It’ll be fine. I mean your mom already loves me and we know how your sister—“

“Dan, shut the fuck up.”

“And your dad…well he hates me, but the majority is in our favor.”

“I don’t even like you.” She said glowering at him.

“That’s a lie. If you actually hated me, we wouldn’t be in this situation.”

“We’re in this situation because you plowed me with tequila.”

“Ames, come on! You can’t tell yourself that shit. That’s some total fucking bullshit. I didn’t plow you with tequila. We were both shit-faced drunk.”

“Sometimes, I wish I’d never met you.” She grumbled.

“Likewise.” He said finally grabbing her hand and without further hesitation rang the doorbell with the hand holding the bouquet. He could hear her mumbling under her breath, but he couldn’t make out the words.

He took notice of the smooth skin of her small hands, though. And the way they tightened a fraction when the door swung open and her dad was revealed in the doorway.

His wide smile darkened when he saw Dan standing beside her and then it fell into Selina-on-a-bad-day territory when he saw they were holding hands.

“Amy?” Mr. Brookheimer asked raising an inquisitive eyebrow.

“Hey dad!” she greeted and hastily shook Dan’s hand out of her own before reaching to hug her dad.

He glared at Dan over Amy’s shoulder and Dan resisted rolling his eyes.

“How are you, Mr. Brookheimer?” Dan asked faking a polite smile.

Mr. Brookheimer ignored him and turned back to Amy, “come in, come in, Me-Me.”

Dan watched with amusement as Amy’s shoulder’s tensed up at the nickname. He made a mental note to use that when they left.

“Are you guys ready for breakfast?” Amy asked as they walked into the house and toward the kitchen.

“Your mother’s almost ready and Sophie is in the living room with the kids.” Mr. Brookheimer said eyeing Dan suspiciously.

“Great.” Amy said for lack of anything else to say.

Dan and her had come up with a plan to take her family to breakfast. The plan was to make as little of a scene as possible and they figured if they broke the news in a public place, then it wouldn’t be so bad. They had tried to wait as long as possible to break the news, but Amy was entering the second trimester and was beginning to show.

They had just told Selina and Co. the week before and was greeted to a symphony of not caring, so they hoped that Amy’s and eventually Dan’s parents would feel the same way.

“Danny!”

Amy tensed, if possible even more, when the voice of her sister sounded through the kitchen.

Dan smiled smugly as Sophie entered the kitchen with her three brats trailing behind her.

“How are you?” Sophie asked flirtatiously.

“We’re fine.” Amy cut in.

Sophie glanced over at her with a scowl, “it’s _awfully_ nice that you two are taking us all out for breakfast.”

“Well, we were in town for work and I figured that we should stop and see each other.” Amy said sweetly glancing at her dad and then her mom who finally came trailing in.

“That’s so nice, Amy!” Mrs. Brookheimer, “we were wondering if you’d forgotten about us. I mean, what with your hard breakup with Buddy and moving to New York to do Godknowswhat! And Dan! It’s so nice of you to tag-along. We always love seeing you.”

“No we don’t.” Mr. Brookheimer grumbled.

The kitchen fell into silence, except for the kids playing on the floor by Sophie’s feet with their toys.

Amy looked over at Dan and tilted her head toward her mother. He nodded suddenly and gave Mrs. Brookheimer a wide, smarmy smile. He handed her the flowers.

“These are for you, Mrs. Brookheimer.”

“Why, thank you, Dan! These are lovely.”

“What, no flowers for me, Danny?” Sophie asked grinning at Amy.

Amy sighed and rolled her eyes, tightening her coat around herself.

“We couldn’t find the ones you’re allergic to.” She snipped.

Dan looked down at the floor trying to hide a smirk. He felt a glare directed at him though and he was sure that it was Amy since he had barely said anything or maybe it was just her default setting with him when Sophie was around – or whenever really.

“You probably shouldn’t be giving my wife flowers when you’ve already slept with my two daughters.” Mr. Brookheimer said loudly.

“Alright! Let’s go.” Amy said even more loudly.

“Where are you taking us?” Sophie asked picking up the littlest kid and gathering the other two with the help of Mrs. Bookheimer.

“It’s uh…It’s uh…a diner.” Amy said crossing her arms over her body.

Dan wanted to reach out and touch her shoulder because he could see how tense she was, even though her large coat, but he refrained since her dad was glaring at him. Dan wondered if he was trying to make laser beams come out of his eyes.

He shuffled in the kitchen awkwardly as Sophie and Mrs. Brookheimer struggled with the three kids. Dan dully noticed that he and Amy would need to do that if they ever had any more kids.

If they ever had any more kids?

Where the fuck did that come from?

They’d barely squeezed out the first one.

And he was pretty sure Amy was never going to let him touch her again. She kept reiterating how it was a one-time thing and that was it.

Technically, it had been a five-time thing, since that’s how many times they’d had sex since they began this whatever-the-fuck-it-was situation.

The second time.

And that wasn’t counting technically how many times they’d gotten each other to come.

Because it was a lot more than five…or ten…or…

He stopped his train of thought before it got too out of hand because he was standing in the Brookheimer’s kitchen with three children, Amy’s parents, and her sister and he didn’t really want them taking notice of anything with him since the situation was awkward enough without _that_ happening.

But also he just had no way to relieve that little itch.

Especially since Amy wasn’t going to touch him with a 10-foot pole.

He was excited for the next trimester since he’d been doing some reading and Amy’s hormones were going to be all over the place.

Including in the range of horny.

He was hoping he could…seduce her into giving him another shot.

At only sex of course.

Nothing else.

They were having a baby, but it wasn’t like they were going to get married.

Because he didn’t want that.

He just wanted to have sex with Amy.

That was it.

He smirked as he looked over at her twisting and turning and waiting for them all to be done. She hadn’t stopped moving since they entered the home.

He noticed that her eyes were glued to the youngest child in Sophie’s arms and because he knew her so well, he also identified the look of discomfort and nervousness.

A look he very rarely saw on Amy and one he didn’t exactly like seeing.

While Amy had varying looks of anxiety and general miff-ment, she only head two looks of unsettlement. The first being unsettled in the way of someone was causing her to feel something she didn’t want to – such as when he spent time rubbing Sophie in her face – and the one she had on her look now: when she was faced with a situation she didn’t want to understand.

Amy and him hadn’t talked much about the baby other than general things such as when doctor’s appointments were and what she should be eating.

While he knew about the pregnancy and had accepted it, other than reading books, he didn’t really understand it.

It was just so far out of his realm he didn’t know what he should know about it.

Like yes, he should probably start getting ready for inviting a new being into their lives.

And he should probably know how to take care of it to some degree, but he didn’t understand any more of it. It just seemed to be some far off thing that was happening and it was one of those things you just had to accept, like how people believed in God without there being any proof.

It probably had something to do with them not talking about it much or the fact Amy wasn’t showing so it all felt really surreal.

It was only when they told Selina, Kent, and Ben, that it began to feel real. (They told Gary, Richard, Catherine, Margery, and a few others that needed to know about the situation by default because they had to or happened to be around.)

Neither of them acknowledged the fact they told their co-workers before their families or the tiny amount – read nonexistent – of friends they had.

After Amy’s family would be Dan’s and then she’d start showing and eventually have the fucker and then…he’d be a dad he guessed.

Dan blinked suddenly coming out of the downward spiral he had been occupying to find Sophie and Mrs. Brookheimer in an argument.

“…he is good with the kids.” Sophie said hotly.

“What’s going on?” he asked quietly coming over to Amy.

She glanced at him, “Did you re-emerge from scheming a way out of this shitshow? Have you not been paying attention?”

Dan shrugged because he hadn’t and he didn’t really care.

Amy rolled her eyes and glanced over at her dad who had gone back to a cup of coffee that he must’ve been making before they rang the doorbell.

“Sophie’s pissed cause mom won’t let her invite her new boyfriend to breakfast. I guess my parents don’t like him.”

“Great, we already have something in common.” Dan said sardonically.

“My dad hates you. Not my mom. So not really.” Amy said boredly. Dan smiled slightly and looked down at her. He knew she hated it, but he enjoyed her from this angle.

When he was standing above her, he felt normal.

Like this was how it was supposed to be.

Standing next to each other, ready for whatever.

He felt a sudden sense of preparedness that he hadn’t felt leading up to this trip.

Sure, it had been for work, but they’d also asked to go because they wanted to tell her parents before it got too late in to the pregnancy.

And the entire trip, he’d been dragging his feet.

He wouldn’t dare say his mind was distracted because they were working on the campaign and Selina being Selina and balancing the shitstorm – aka the pregnancy – so he needed to be fine.

But he hadn’t been on his A game until the equilibrium seemed to be brought back to his life. That equilibrium came down to Amy and for the first time he was noticing that, which was strange since they’d known each other for so long.

As long as she was with him, he felt…settled.

It gave him a feeling of unsettlement in his chest and he rubbed at it subconsciously.

“Can we just go? I’m starving. Bring fucking Ted or Tim or whatever the hell the fucker’s name is and let’s go.” Amy exclaimed suddenly interrupting the two women bickering.

Dan’s smirk widened and he wanted to reach over to touch Amy. Her pregnancy made her hungry and she was never easy to be around when hungry.

“What crawled up your butt?” Sophie asked taking her phone out and texting.

Amy signed and looked over at Dan for some support.

“We’re going to go to the restaurant and meet you there.” He said.

“Fine.” Mr. Brookheimer said.

Amy nodded stiffly and gripped her phone tighter in her hand as she texted something. “I sent you the address. We’ll go grab a table.”

Mrs. Brookheimer yelled out a goodbye and they swiftly left the house as one of the kids started to cry.

“Jesus fuck! That was some goddamn shit.” Amy exclaimed.

“Yeah.”

“I mean…is it going to take us 20 fucking years to leave the house every time we want to go somewhere? I already wake up at 5 am for work.” she added as they reached the car.

“Yeah.”

“Are you going to say anything else?”

“What do you want me to say? Your family is nuts? Your sister is a bitch? Your dad hates me? It’s _your family_ , Amy! I told you I’d be on my best behavior and giving minimum opinions is me doing just that.”

Amy rolled her eyes and got into the car.

“You’re such an asshole.”

“Like you don’t already know.”

He started the car and drove off toward the restaurant Jonah had taken him to once because he really didn’t want to spend that much money and it seemed like a place Amy’s family would go.

Also no one would know them there, so there was no chance of running into D.C. people. Him and Amy had agreed to get in and get out, but the way the day was going, it would be next Sunday before they went back to New York.

“This is some shit, you know. We should’ve just told them at the house.” He said suddenly because it was annoying that they had to spend so long dealing with it and he just wanted to blurt it out.

_Sorry I impregnated your daughter. Didn’t realize my little swimmers could swim._

“I just…I don’t want them to murder you or anything.” She said quietly.

“Would you miss me if I was dead?” he said making a pouting expression at her.

She curled her upper lip, “Fix your face, fucker.”

He chortled stopping at a light. “So how are you going to do it?”

“Just straight up. Like this is what’s going on, then answer all their questions.”

“Do you think they’ll have a lot?”

“Mmmm yes. The last time I mentioned you was how we hadn’t spoken in a year.”

“Almost a year.”

“Whatever.”

Silence enveloped the car and Dan shot glances at Amy who was looking out the window.

“So?” he egged on.

“So what?” she responded.

“So how are you going to tell them?”

“I’ll just do it. It’ll be fine.” Amy said distractedly.

“Amy, the whole fuckin' point of today is to tell your parents and then get back to work, so we can come back to D.C and make Selina president.”

“I just…it’s hard okay. My dad hates you. You slept with my sister for fuck’s sake. I feel like I’m in a reality show about people’s unlucky fucked up lives. Like out of all the guys I could’ve been impregnated by, it had to be you. The guy who slept with my sister and who probably wants to fuck my mom.” Amy rambled out in anger.

Dan glanced over at her trying not to be too distracted while driving.

It was D.C. traffic after all.

“Jesus. Are you still fucked up about all of that shit? I apologized about that! What else do you want! I’m sorry!” Dan yelled back.

Amy screeched and crossed her arms over her chest.

He wondered if she was going to combust one day in a fit of rage.

“Look, Amy I’m sorry _again_ for fucking Sophie. It was a shitty thing to do.”

Amy stayed silent and glared out the window.

“Whatever, Dan. I don’t give a fuck.” She said suddenly turning back toward him.

There was a beat of silence.

“Was that the only time?” she asked and Dan groaned.

“Yes! I did it once. I heard C _B_ S and…it’s Sophie, Amy! She’s stupid and annoying and I can’t hold a conversation with her. She’s…like all the other women I’ve slept with.” He finished shrugging and glancing tentatively out of the corner of his eye at her. “Amy, we have to move past this. It was a one-time thing that didn’t mean anything…and besides it’s not like you and me are together.”

He watched Amy tighten her arms around herself. He turned into the parking lot for the restaurant and parked the car in one of the many available spots. Turning the vehicle off, he twisted his body so it was closer to hers.

Once the car was parked, Amy opened the door quickly and shot out of there.

However, before she got too far, she turned back around and stuck her head back into the car to speak. “We’re not together and maybe it was a one-time thing, but you still did it and I can’t forget that.”

He opened his mouth to reply, but she closed the door quickly and took off toward the restaurant. He sat there for a second before going after her because even if she was upset with him, he was still there and they still needed to do this.

He wasn’t sure where any of that had come from really when they’d been in such a good place since she’d told him the truth. While their relationship was definitely further apart than it had been for years – not counting the last year when they didn’t speak – it had felt warmer.

He was less getting ice from her and more getting cold water.

She’d drop him a few little smiles every once in awhile and sometimes she’d like him touch her.

Nothing sexual, but just a shoulder grab or a hand on the small of her back.

Sometimes to annoy her, he’d grab her hand.

But that was it.

And over the last week or so since they left New York and headed to D.C. she’d grown increasingly distant and not exactly quieter…but more like she’d been after the shit in Nevada.

Removed.

Uncomfortable.

Serious.

Very anti-touch.

He’d noticed it, but hadn’t said anything.

And now they were out at breakfast with her annoying family and she was having a meltdown about something that happened almost 2 years ago.

Jesus fucking Christ.

What the fuck was her problem?

He opened the door to the restaurant and looked around not seeing her. Sighing, he went over to the hostess and asked if their name had been put in.

The hostess smiled, “yessir! Your wife is in the bathroom. It should be about 20 minutes for a table.”

Dan gave her a half-hearted sardonic smile and sat down at one of the chairs that were for people waiting. Staring at the door, he waited for her to come out, but when five, then 10, and then 15 minutes passed, he began to wonder if he should send someone in there to check on her. 

And then he saw the front door of the restaurant open and her family walk in with a tall Hispanic gentleman.

“Dan? Where’s Amy?” Mrs. Brookheimer asked as he walked over toward them.

“She’s—“

“Here!” she said suddenly appearing beside his elbow.

He scowled at her and she subtle stuck her tongue out at him in a childish manner.

“Amy! This is Eduardo.” Sophie said loudly introducing them. “This is Dan.” She said glancing over at him.

“Nice to meet you.” Amy said shaking his hand and smiling.

Dan followed suit and thankfully, the hostess called them.

The large party was seated in a table near the window in the back.

Dan had to stop himself from touching the small of Amy’s back as they walked toward it. Sliding in the booth, Dan noted how the restaurant didn’t look anymore appealing than the last time he was there.

“So! This is nice.” Mrs. Brookheimer said clapping her hands together.

Amy and Dan nodded as everyone began to slide out of their coats, except Amy.

Dan looked down at her with raised eyebrows and she shrugged.

“Cold.” She muttered, but he knew it was a bold face lie.

Amy always ran hot.

But he remembered that morning as they were getting dressed and Amy was complaining about nothing fitting her. He knew that if she took off her coat now, her parents would know and so would the rest of the restaurant.

“What’s new in the political world?” Mrs. Brookheimer asked.

“Oh you know.” Amy said waving it off.

The table erupted in silence except for the sounds of the iPads the kids were using and Sophie flirting with Eduardo.

“We have some news.” Amy said suddenly drawing everyone’s attention, except the kids.

“Amy, now?” Dan asked surprised.

She grabbed his hand under the table in response and he surprised them both when he tightened his grip as she prepared to say what they’d come here to announce.

“Dan and I…Well you see, Dan and I are…we’re uh…working with Selina again.” She blurted out and Dan felt her hand slacken in his, but he squeezed it twice as if to let her know something he couldn’t vocalize.

“Oh…uh…that’s great!” Mrs. Brookheimer said.

“Thank God.” Mr. Brookheimer muttered.

Sophie snorted and Eduardo smiled at them.

“And I’m pregnant.” Amy blurted out causing the table to freeze, except for Eduardo cause he could give a fuck.

Amy’s grip was now tight as hell and Dan felt as if his fingers were going to fall off, but he wasn’t going to let go.

“What?” Sophie asked loudly.

“Hey, y’all! My name is Stacy and I’ll be taking your order today. Can I get you some coffee?”

“Do you have whiskey?” Mr. Brookheimer asked loudly.

“What?” Stacy asked her smile faltering.

“I can’t believe, you’re fucking pregnant!” Sophie yelled.

The term death grip meant something totally new to Dan as he experienced Amy’s hand in his. He wondered if this was what it would be like when she gave birth.

“I need something stronger than orange juice or coffee. My daughter just told me she’s pregnant with this bastard’s child.”

“Okay, well, uh—“ Stacy stuttered.

“Honey! Please! Don’t make a scene! Can’t you see these two love each other? Dan _loves_ Amy, isn’t that enough? And he’s going to help her, isn’t that right Dan?”

“Yes ma’am, it is. Amy and I are in this together.” He said seriously choosing to ignore the part about love, specifically about him loving Amy.

Because he didn’t.

He couldn’t.

He was Dan Egan the Iceman and that shit didn’t happen.

Sophie let out a loud laugh, “seriously? Amy! He’s going to leave you as soon as you gain five pounds. He’s an asshole, you’ve said it yourself.”

“I’ll just come back.” Stacy muttered and turned around to cater to her other tables.

“How could you choose him? He’s scum, Amy, you’re smarter than this! We raised you to know better.” Mr. Brookheimer yelled causing half the restaurant to get quiet.

“Amy, honey, when are you guys going to get married? Have you talked marriage?” Mr.s Brookheimer asked. “

Congrats.” Eduardo said loudly.

Dan watched as Amy seemed to shut down under her parents’ questions and her sister’s exclamations. He ignored Eduardo and what everyone else was saying about him because his main concern was Amy and Amy wasn’t acting like herself. She’d normally flip out and tell everyone to go fuck themselves but this Amy…well she looked scared.

And that wasn’t a look he wanted to see on her.

He tightened his hand even more, if possible, and started yelling over them.

“Hey! Hey! Hey! Stop! Amy and I are having a baby. That’s it. We don’t want to talk about it. It’s happening and for right now, we just want to eat fucking breakfast because we’re starving and Amy needs to eat.”

The agreements and concern came just as loud and everyone’s focus was on Amy.

Dan waved the waitress over who had been watching them and he ordered something for Amy and himself and let the others fend for themselves.

His main concern was Amy, everyone else could be damned.

* * *

 

It started little by little.

It didn’t happen overnight.

Even though, looking back, Amy would claim that it did.

But Dan would fight her on it because that’s just what they did.

It wasn’t like suddenly Dan was worrying every minute of the day about Amy and the baby or force feeding her when he wasn’t sure how long it had been since she last ate.

No, it was a much slower progress and it started about the time Amy entered her second trimester. She was starting to show more and more and that seemed to be a trigger for Dan.

It was like he had suddenly awoken to find that Amy was pregnant and they needed to figure out what to do next.

It was odd since for the first month or so of knowing she was pregnant he didn’t really understand it or want to understand it.

Now that she had a little bump she carried around everywhere, it was starting to hit him that maybe he should be worried about her a little more.

Maybe he should start to watch her every move a little more carefully.

Perhaps he should take note of her climbing ladders to get something off the top shelf or how staying at home alone wasn’t as safe as it once was, especially after Dan had watched a TLC special on the horrors of childbirth.

(It was on late at night and he couldn’t sleep.)

Despite Amy reminding him, she had awhile to go until giving birth, he was still worried that he’d get a phone call in the middle of the night to tell him that Amy had, had to go into labor at the house and she had no help and it was all his fault and she was completely alone.

It had started to turn into a nightmare even; getting the phone call that detailed Amy had to do it all alone. It was probably some psychological bullshit that he wasn’t interested in analyzing.

But it sure as shit worried him because she did live alone and he was a good 20 minutes away on a good day.

Fucking New York City traffic.

Although, he wouldn’t own up to the fact he was worried about anything to do with Amy.

They were just having a baby; he wasn’t anxious about anything.

No, he was Dan the Iceman and he didn’t get worried about anyone.

Amy was just a good friend…who he’d gotten pregnant.

He wasn’t worried or concerned or anything.

He just felt…like it was his duty to help.

After all, he’d helped to create the little fucker he might as well care for him _or her_.

As Amy would so diligently correct him.

They hadn’t found out the sex of the baby yet.

However, the more time that ticked by, the more he stopped reading up on the political world and the more he was reading about parenting. Anyway he could, Dan tried to learn everything he could about that and pregnancy. And the more he read…weirder and unlikely situations began to manifest themselves in his head.

Whether he was watching Youtube videos about how to swaddle a baby or if he was reading forums by stay-at-home moms on the best way to breast feed or if it was from one of the many books he’d bought on the dangerous of what could happen during the pregnancy, Dan was reading it all. As they progressed further into the pregnancy, he started to have flashbacks to the weeks before his nervous breakdown in London.

But he wasn’t going to tell Amy that, of course, he didn’t want her to worry.

So while Amy grew a child inside of her, Dan grew steadily more and more concerned about her wellbeing because it was Amy and she didn’t seem to know her limit.

He was the one who had to police her— _how the fuck had she lived before him?_

It had started to cause fights between them.

Even though Dan just wanted to make sure she was being careful.

She was incubating his child.

Of course, he wanted to make sure she didn’t trip and fall and die.

Because that would be depressing.

So what that he’d told her that she had to eat more? Or that she had to stop taking the train late at night and just call him for a ride instead? He didn’t think it was so weird to remind her to take her prenatal vitamins or go to bed at a decent hour. He didn’t see the big deal in leaving post it notes around her house or at work to remind her to eat at certain times or take a walk around the building to increase blood flow and decrease the likelihood of clots.

He’d read about clots and now he had to remind Amy to move, especially if she was deeply invested in work.

Once he watched her sit in the same position for three hours because she was working so diligently.

While he loved—liked—admired—this about her, he couldn’t help but feel anxious about her current workload and how it was affecting her.

After all, he knew personally how stressed out she could get.

He had figured she’d find it endearing because most women would be touched that their baby daddy was checking in on their wellbeing, but Amy was a creature unto herself.

It seemed that every week he was finding new information out that Amy should be aware of or stay away from. All he wanted to do was warn her to be more careful with what she ate or why taking pre-natal vitamins _were_ very helpful.

He just wanted to make sure she was okay and yet, she flipped a shit every time he showed that he was concerned—not so much concerned _but worried_.

There was that word again.

 _Worried_.

Although, he wouldn’t even consider himself very concerned _or worried_.

If anything, he figured that it was just because her body was changing so drastically.

And all because of him.

It was definitely an ego-boost.

But it also was doing something weird to him.

Never had he been that attracted to pregnant women— _weird_.

Nor had he been interested in having kids.

But watching Amy’s body change because he impregnated her…Well it was definitely doing something for him.

And yet, she still refused to give in to him.

It was frustrating to say the least, especially because he had gotten to the point where he didn’t want to sleep with anyone else.

Which was fucking bizarre.

He was Dan fucking Egan.

He should want to fuck any woman that could help his career…except he didn’t.

Not at the current moment at least.

He blamed it on the weird tightening sensation in his chest every time he saw Amy and that tiny bump.

It would get worse when she was angry and yelling at someone who wasn’t him.

It was different than the other sensations he felt around her.

This one caused him to feel… _something_ weird toward her.

He couldn’t really describe it, but it was annoying him because he didn’t have feelings.

Especially not for Amy Brookheimer.

Other than begrudging respect and a desire to get her into bed— _again_.

It was weird dealing with all the changing emotions between them.

And the weirdest was his lack of interest in other women.

The last time he tried to itch his scratch because Amy wasn’t giving in to him had been a couple of few weeks ago. He’d spent the day with Amy, who had been very upset with a few interns and would randomly go off on them throughout the rest of the day. By the end of the day, he needed _something_ because he was so fucking horny watching her go off in anger at other people.

Recently, because of the campaign, BKD Consulting had been taking off a bit more and he’d had his eye on a potential new client. He decided to seduce an administrative assistant in the potential new client’s office. He wanted to get the dirty details on the guy and she was very willing…overly so, to share them with him.

It was a perfect opportunity.

One he’d taken advantage of many times, many times.

And yet, when it came down to going to get a drink with her and getting the information he wanted with a side of nookie...it just seemed boring.

She was a bad conversationalist.

Her hair was a dirty blonde that he kept subconsciously comparing to Amy’s beautiful coloring and her make up had been caked on. His eyes kept being drawn toward the crooked line of eyeliner he doubted she noticed.

He lasted for about 30 minutes before he made up some excuse and left.

He ended up at Amy’s, sitting on the couch, and eating dinner as she complained about Gary touching her belly when she was getting ready to leave.

Eventually, as he listened to her shrill tone—that he never really found to be that shrill—he fell asleep with his head on her shoulder.

Which is what lead them to the current conversation.

“I just think that you should consider it.” He protested as they walked into Selina’s office to meet for a strategy session with Selina, Ben, and Kent.

“Think about what? There’s literally nothing to think about, Dan. I’m not doing it.” She snarled back unwrapping a banana and shoveling it into her mouth as they hurried to Selina’s private office.

He eyed her with aggravation, “can you eat like a normal person? Do you have to deep throat the banana?”

“Jealous, Dan?”

“Disgusted, actually, Amy.”

“Whatever.” She snipped finishing the banana and throwing it into the garbage.

“You’re the one telling me to eat more bananas and shit.”

“The book said—“

“Jesus! Not the book again.”

“Fine. The forums—“

“Fucking hell! Not the forums. You know you sound like a 1950s housewife, right? It’s always nag, nag, nag with you. You need to chill the fuck out.” Amy exclaimed coming to a halt right outside Selina’s office and speaking directly to him.

Dan paused for a beat and cocked his head at her a sly smile sliding up his face. The idea began to manifest in his head and he watched as a look of recognition took place on her face. As she was processing her next thought, he knew what she was going to say as the wheels turned in her own head.

He knew her too damn well.

“No.”

“I’ll stop nagging if you move in with me.”

“No.”

“Amy, you should consider it! It could be fun! We’re going to end up back in D.C. soon anyway. You’d pay less in rent and your apartment—“

Amy shot him a glare, “stop. This is work. Let’s go to our meeting.”

“But—“

She made a zipping motion with her hand against her lips and Dan death glared at her because he _hated_ when she did that.

“Bitch.” He muttered and she knocked on the door.

He could feel her glare at him, but he chose to ignore it as they heard Selina yell at them to come in. They walked in together and Selina glanced up from where she had been conversing with Gary in the corner.

“Where the fuck have you two been?” she snarled coming over to stand in front of them.

Amy glanced over at Dan and then back at Selina.

“I apologize, ma’am. Dan had to finish gelling his hair.”

“Of course, he would hold you up. Just like how he got you pregnant. My campaign manager, Dan! You couldn’t have knocked up another poor woman with your Satan sperm?” Selina said angrily.

Dan scowled because she had been using this to toss in his face every time they did something out of line. Gary accidentally left her favorite purse in the hotel room in fucking Iowa; it’s Dan’s fault because he impregnated Amy with his demon swimmers. The numbers aren’t reflecting well for them; Dan impregnated Amy with his fucking demon sperm. Amy and Dan were late to work; Dan had impregnated Amy with a baby that was already messing with their jobs because it was the antichrist.

He was tired of being Selina’s punching bag.

He opened his mouth to retort something that probably would be the straw that got him fired—again—when Amy’s foot fell onto his and pressed down with determination.

It wasn’t painful, but it was a warning to stop talking.

“It wasn’t really Dan’s fault. I just…I forgot my second breakfast and Dan gets upset because…it won’t happen again.” Amy said stiffly.

Dan watched as the look on Selina’s face softened slightly and then looked back and forth between them.

“What the fuck is _second breakfast_? Is that some new foodie term or some shit? Gary, why don’t _I_ have second breakfast?”

“I’m pretty sure they made that up, ma’am.” Gary replied from his spot against the wall.

Ben snorted, “Dan has you eating two breakfasts, Amy? Are you trying to get her nice and fat so other guys don’t notice her? Are you going to keep her down in a basement and only take her out for political events and networking?”

Dan sneered at Ben, “fuck off. It’s because she gets hungry before lunch and the book says she needs to increase her calorie intake by—“

“Hold up, hold up, hold up. Are you actually doing more than sitting on your ass and doing nothing during this pregnancy? Are you actually helping out?” Selina asked amazed.

She looked over at Ben, Kent, and Gary. “That’s fucking amazing.”

Dan rolled his eyes, “of course I’m helping. Can we start this fucking meeting?”

Selina nodded slowly her eyes trained on him with a curious expression. “Yes, we can. Enough baby bullshit. We have a campaign to run after all…Gary, can you get us some coffees? Ames, can you take notes?”

They sat down and began to start the meeting.

They were sitting on the couches and chairs in Selina’s office as she paced the length of the room. Dan brought up a few good ideas, but the majority of his attention was on Amy who was sitting beside him and kept shifting her body weight every couple of minutes.

Without thinking, he reached over and moved his hand to her lower back where he knew she was having a lot of pain. She was so tiny that the extra weight that was added to her during pregnancy had caused her back to hurt a lot and it didn’t help that she spent most of her time slouched over.

He had tried buying her a lumbar pillow, but she kept threatening to shove it down his throat until it came out of his asshole.

Immediately when his hand connected with her, she froze and turned to glare at him.

“What the fuck, Dan?” she hissed.

“You were in pain.”

“I’m fine.”

“Amy—“

“Sorry, are we interrupting you two?” Kent asked gesturing between them with a smirk.

“It’s just that Amy’s—“ Dan began.

“Dan!”

“What?”

He didn’t understand why she got so fucking weird when he touched her at work. He just wanted to ease the pressure on her back.

“What’s going on?” Selina asked with annoyance.

“Nothing.” And “Amy’s back hurts.” They said in unison.

Selina looked back and forth between them. “Has Dan been invaded by a body snatcher?”

Amy blinked in surprise—probably because Selina wasn’t yelling at them— and then smirked looking over at him, “I’m starting to think so.”

“Hey! You know what? I don’t give a fuck. If your back hurts, then whatever. Fucking massage it yourself.” Dan yelled dropping his hand from her back and glaring at her.

She rolled her eyes at him and turned back toward the iPad she’d been using to take notes.

“Can we get back to the meeting, please?” Ben snapped, “I have a lunch date with a client in an hour and I’d like to hurry this up.”

“Yes.” Kent agreed nodding slowly.

~~~

Later, as they dispersed to complete their own separate assignments, Dan followed Amy into her office or rather the small area that she’d deemed her office, but was really a small desk she'd pushed into a corner by the door to Selina's office.

He knew she hated working with Selina.

He knew she was miserable being cramped into a tiny spot with minimal projects going on.

He wanted to take her away from here and to BKD, but Selina was their client and they were going to make her president again.

It was good for their image and it fucking beat working on the news.

But he missed working with Amy.

He wanted to work with her again and her brilliant brain.

So he lingered as much as his schedule would allow.

Today, he was dawdling even more because she was rubbing at her back and perhaps today was the day he finally convinced her to get a lumbar pillow—scratch that a lumbar chair.

He should just buy her a whole new chair.

“Amy—“

“Stop!”

“Come on, Amy, you were in pain.”

“We’re at work!”

“So?”

“Dan, you need to stop!”

“But you need—“

“I already took the pre-natal vitamins and I have a snack for when I get hungry in an hour. I’m going to eat at noon and I’m leaving the office early at six to go to a work out class to avoid _the fucking clots_. I saw your _six_ goddamn post it notes on the fridge at home and I already know you’ll be over later with a salad and shit. I got it, okay? You can stop hovering now. I don’t need anything else from you!” Amy rattled off shuffling the papers on her desk and giving him a look that very clearly said _what now?!_

“That’s not what I was going to say.” He snapped.

“Fine. What were you going to say?” she asked irritated that he wasn’t allowing her to get her work done.

Dan paused and opened his mouth and then closed it. For a moment, he debated telling her nevermind and leaving, but that tightening sensation started again in his chest when she sat down and shifted around to try and get comfortable.

“I just…I’m going to schedule you an appointment with a masseuse. A pregnant one so she knows how to fix your fucked up back.” He blurted out before he could stop himself.

“Dan—“

“I was thinking of buying you a different chair, like one with lumbar support or some shit. Also, I think it’s weird that you get so fucking bizare when I try to help you out. You’re pregnant, accept the fucking help.”

“Dan—“

“And why don’t you like me touching you at work?” he added narrowing his eyes at her in suspicion.

“You need to stop doing this! Stop babying me. I’m pregnant not dying. I don’t need all these reminders or a massage in the middle of a meeting. I just need you to get off my fucking dick. Jesus Fuck, Dan.” She said crossing her arms, which made her boobs look bigger.

He smirked as his eyes rested on the exposed skin from the top of her dress.

He didn't think she noticed because she didn't call him out.

“I get that you’re worried, but you need to stop.” She added when he didn’t say anything.

“I’m not worried.” He grumbled moving his eyes up to hers.

She blinked at him and then smiled slightly, “you’re so fucking worried about me. You’re close to combusting into a pile of anxiety because of me. Even Gary notices it.”

Dan gave her a calculating look at what she was saying.

He wasn’t worried about her.

And Gary didn’t notice anything unless something was shoved up Selina's ass and he could dig it out of there.

“Me-Me—“ he started smirking when he said her cheeks heat up and a fiery look appear.

 _There_ now she was as annoyed as he was.

“Don’t call me that!”

“ _Me-Me_ , I’m not worried. I just want to make sure you don’t kill the only chance I have of pro-creating because you’re too much of a workaholic to notice that you haven’t eaten all day.”

She opened her mouth to respond and then closed it with an eye roll.

“Fuck off, _Danny_.”

He tossed her a leer as she sat behind her desk and began to get to work.

He watched her for a second and then turned to leave, but he stopped two feet away from her desk and then turned back. Coming to a halt in front of her, he rifled in the bag he brought with him everywhere and pulled out a bag of apple chips—Amy’s current obsession.

She glanced at the bag and then up at him before turning back to the laptop on her desk.

He gave her a sycophantic smile, “What would you do without me?”

“Die of happiness, I’m sure.”

He rolled his eyes at her and her melodramatic attitude and then turned to leave the office. He heard the sound of a chip bag rustling before he even got to the elevator.

* * *

 

“Who is the father of Amy Brookheimer’s baby? That’s the topic of today’s show. While there is direr news to focus on like peace in the Middle East and what’s going with NASA. We always love a little gossip and our show today will touch upon this entertaining question. Who in their right mind would pro-create with Amy Brookheimer? The youngest Chief of Staff in history and the shrillest woman in D.C. and now New York City where she is currently residing— _again_ with Selina Meyer during her book-turned-campaign tour. Or at least that’s the rumor. It has not been confirmed that Meyer is in fact running, but if the rumors are true, we might be in for an interesting campaign. It’ll be even better with Brookheimer pregnant and the father of the child we presume to be someone connected to the Meyer Administration.”

“My bets are on Gary Walsh, Meyer’s bag boy.”

“No, I’d say it’s her ex-fiance Nevada Secretary Of State Buddy Calhoun.”

“But we should also throw in Jonah Ryan, the ex-congressman is right up her ally."

“And dare we say— _Dan Egan_. Egan and Brookheimer have had a thing for a number of years, even though it’s been denied over and over again. There’s no fooling us though, the sparks between them have always been red hot.”

“I always knew their fake-hatred was a cover up. I’d say it is a Brookheimer-Egan baby and if that’s true, D.C. and the rest of the world should watch out for that antichrist baby.”

“What do you think, folks? Who do you think was forced into—“

Dan reached forward and tuned off the radio. He felt his blood boiling beneath the surface. He wasn't sure what to do, but he didn't want the entire world focusing on Amy or him.

Which was weird for him since he generally adored being the center of attention.

But now with the baby, well it just seemed...violating.

Especially because he knew that Amy didn't like being in the spotlight and she was in a delicate position.

They were currently on their way to Selina’s office where Dan would drop Amy off and then he’d head to BKD to meet with a potential new client.

They had just moved permanently back to D.C. and things had actually been good.

Like really good.

So good that Dan was pretty sure Amy was going to cave to him any day.

Selina’s campaign was on the right tracks, they were finishing up the strategic route they would take across the country as well as fill time with _normal_ people activities to show _she was just one of the normals_.

Dan had convinced Amy to move in with him—even though she still had her apartment in D.C. to rent out to AirBnB-ers. They had found a place together and had finally finished moving all of their stuff from New York.

Dan had even bought a few pieces of baby furniture that were sitting in the guest bedroom-turned nursery waiting to be put together.

Things were good.

Which meant that they wouldn’t stay that way for very long.

So it was apt timing that the media suddenly took an interest in Amy’s pregnancy.

They were back in D.C., Selina was back in the spotlight, BKD was really taking off, and that all meant that Amy was the focus since she was caught in the middle.

It reminded Dan of that article that was written about him and Amy when he was still working for Jane McCabe.

The one that said he was out with a ‘beefy’ blonde.

Which was so inaccurate because Amy wasn’t anywhere near _beefy_.

Amy was…well let’s just say that _he really liked_ her pregnancy body.

But even before that, he just really liked Amy.

Sure, he made fun of her, but he'd always wanted her.

When he first met her all the way until this very minute.

She was his intellectual equal and that turned him on more than anything else.

Someone who would match him verbal barb for barb or who could stay up for hours strategizing with him. Someone he could go to for advice...it was always _Amy_.

But with her changing body...that wasn't something he had expected from the pregnancy.

While they still weren’t a serious thing and she still wouldn’t come anywhere near him, he took notice of how her body was altering because of him.

And when she was very sore from the day—her legs had taken to swelling since she was always standing and pacing, something he strongly discouraged her from—she’d let him massage her.

And maybe he’d accidentally-on-purpose walked in on her changing a few times.

But the shoes that were thrown at him were completely worth it.

Even though some of them hit their mark.

(And Ben and Kent had made fun of the heel mark on his forehead for a week.)

They lived together after all.

And he was no saint.

It was funny that the larger Amy got the more turned on he became.

Which was saying something since he was already pretty turned on watching her carry his child around and yelling at people and just generally being _Amy Brookheimer_.

Dan knew that all he had to do was be patient and she’d give in to him, but it was getting more and more difficult. She was only a week away from entering her third trimester and he hadn’t fucked anyone in almost two months.

It was weird.

He didn’t feel like himself.

He thought that she’d be all over him with her hormones, but all she’d done was go from one extreme to the next. One minute she’d be yelling at interns about their fuckups and the next she’d be laughing with them about the fuckup.

And now with these baby daddy rumors…he knew he was going to have to deal with another shitstorm because the media couldn’t focus on things people should actually care about like dying children and space and shit.

He glanced over at Amy would had been mysteriously quiet since he’d turned off the radio.

She was sitting stiffly beside him with an off expression on her face. It reminded him of the one when he’d interviewed her and Buddy after the whole DUI-exposing-himself situation.

Fuck, he really fucking hated that guy.

He remembered how Amy had stuttered uncomfortably through that interview.

The whole shit about Downton Abbey and loving spending time with Buddy…It was fucking sickening.

But at the time, he tried not to let that show.

Since he was a master of avoiding feelings, he thought it worked pretty well.

Until, he’d heard the whole story from Amy later on.

“What the fuck.” He muttered to fill the silence.

“It’s no big deal. It’s just a radio show. No one listens to that shit anyway.” Amy muttered.

“Yeah but—“

“Dan, it’s just speculation. It’s no one’s business but our own.” She said stiffly.

He opened his mouth to respond, but he wasn’t sure what to say.

Should he defend them?

Should he try to talk to her?

Should he start writing a press release?

While he’d been the topic of gossip many times, he knew that Amy hated being focused on, especially on the political radio shows. He remembered grabbing drinks with her when she came to New York after the Buddy Calhoun situation and that video.

That fucking video.

He found the video to be fucking hilarious, but after talking to Amy about it…she’d told him after too many tequila sunrises that fucking Buddy had been talking about her in bed and how she couldn’t…he wanted her to dirty talk and…the whole thing still made Dan’s blood boil.

He really fucking hated that guy.

But he also couldn’t help but take some sick satisfaction in the fact that in their time apart, Amy was as miserable as he was. While he drowned himself in New York snatch, Amy was settling for a buffoon.

When he’d heard about Amy’s engagement…it was difficult, but the fact that she ended up being as fucked about about love as he was…well it was a turn on.

But that still didn’t make up for how upset she had been about it.

While she’d never come out and said so, he had noticed a more sullen change in her after that event.

However, he was happy that he’d shown that clip as many times as he had during their short interview because it ruined Buddy.

While Amy wasn’t the most gregarious person, she wasn’t stiff or uncomfortable with him.

The times they’d been together…she was fiery, spirited, fun to be with in bed.

Her body melded to his.

She knew exactly how to get him off.

He knew just how to push her over the edge.

Their encounters were intense and consuming.

She was just different than any of the other women he’d invited into his bed. They could talk afterward without him wanting her to leave or him thinking of an excuse to get out of there.

She could stand her own, both mentally and physically.

The sounds she made…

The things she did…

Sometimes—and he’d never admit this—but he just liked to listen to her talk about politics or strategizing and he was ready.

Dan shook his head and tried to focus on the D.C. traffic.

Amy still hadn’t said anything and he figured that maybe she didn’t really care about it. Maybe she’d just let it roll off of her, like she had the video and her public breakup with the overgrown Woody wannabe in Nevada.

But that wasn’t Amy.

And he hated the media.

Even though he used to be one of them.

“You know I could make a few calls. I’m still friendly with—“

“It’s not a huge deal, Dan. I figured it was bound to come out anyway. Who cares. Someone will probably shoot up some school or movie theater this afternoon and no one will care. Besides it’s the radio.” She said as he pulled over to park outside of the new offices for Selina Meyer.

He frowned and watched as she gathered her stuff.

He reached into the back and pulled out the large Trader Joe’s grocery bag he was using to pack her food and snacks in. Glaring at him, she grabbed it roughly in her hands and struggled to get out of the car. He quickly glanced to see if he could get out on his side and when he saw no cars, he hurried around to the side of the car and opened the door for her. Her glare escalated as he helped her from the car. She was holding her purse, the bag of food, and a brief case she was using for work.

Plus, the phone she never put down.

He tried to take a bag from her, but she snarled at him and shuffled from the car with difficulty as he held the door and waited for her to finally get out.

He thought about when they'd gone to breakfast with Amy's family and it had taken everyone 20 years to do anything...

_It had now started for them._

Amy leaving the car took  _forever_ , but here he was waiting on her hand and fucking foot.

“Ames, put your fucking phone down for once.” He said as she put her bags on the sidewalk to re-arrange herself. She shot him a glower and shoved the briefcase on her shoulder, then the food bag on her other shoulder and finally she dropped the phone in her bag with a dramatic flair.

“Happy, Dan?”

“Ecstatic.”

She rolled her eyes and began to walk toward the door of the building.

He watched her go and then called out to her.

She turned halfway around, “what?”

“Just uh…have a good day. Call me—“

“I won’t.” she huffed and then turned back to go into the building.

He got back in the car and headed to K Street already a bit worried about her.

~~~

It was sometime around 2 in the afternoon when Gary called Dan, which was a red flag.

Gary never called him unless it had to do with Selina.

“Dan…it’s Amy. She’s…lost it.” Gary said conspiratorially into the phone.

Dan had just gotten out of a meeting and had been working on some stuff for Selina when Gary had called. He thought it was a joke originally and that Amy was just messing with him, but Gary had taken to using his uh-oh voice and Dan was getting that tightening sensation in his chest.

“What? Why are you calling me? Where the fuck is Amy?” Dan scowled and his hand tightening against the device.

“She’s…you should probably come to the office. She’s not well.”

And then Gary hung up and Dan couldn’t fucking believe that he’d hung up on him.

“What the fuck.” Dan grumbled grabbing his things as fast as he could and high-tailing it out of there.

He texted Kent and Ben to tell him he was headed to Selina’s office to check on Amy and then he hurried the few blocks over to the offices. When he got there, he rushed to the top floor and toward Amy’s 'office.'

Except she wasn’t there.

So he went to Selina’s office to see if maybe she was in there.

He came bursting into the office to find Selina talking to Gary and Richard.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” she asked angrily, “and what the fuck happened to knocking?”

“Where’s Amy?” he asked.

Selina waved her hand and rolled her eyes, “what am I her keeper? I don’t know where the fuck she is. She just kinda flipped out and…I don’t know.”

“Selina—“

“Excuse me?”

“Where. The. Fuck. Is. Amy?”

Selina narrowed her eyes at him and Dan was pretty sure she was going to rip him a new asshole when Gary spoke up.

“I’ll take you to her.” Dan frowned slightly and then nodded as Gary went to the door.

Following him out of the office and down the hall, he stopped in front of a random door. Knocking tentatively, Dan watched Gary jiggle the handle.

“Amy, Dan’s here.”

Dan frowned as Gary slowly opened the door to the room that turned out to be a tiny walk in closet.

And there on the floor was Amy.

She was sitting there, clutching her phone in one hand, and a bag of Doritos in the other. He could see a box of tissues peaking out on the other side of her. He watched her blink rapidly when the sudden burst of light hit her. He wondered briefly if she was having another nervous breakdown.

But then he thought of his own _panic attack_.

And he prayed that their child wouldn’t end up with some fucked up mental health issue.

Gary gave him a look and then turned to walk away probably back to Selina since he’d run out of power if he was too far from her.

Dan stepped into the closet and shut the door to give them privacy. Sitting across from her on the floor, his eyes adjusted to the dim lighting.

“What are you doing here?” Amy’s voice sounded garbled as if she was speaking to him from underwater.

It took him a second to realize she’d been crying.

“Why are you eating Doritos?” he asked focusing on the smallest thing instead of diving into all the emotional bullshit he knew he was about to have to tackle.

He saw her roll her eyes and then take another chip from the bag.

“You know—“

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me.” She blurted out dropping the chip back in the bag and to his horror he watched her burst into tears.

Tears he’d never seen from her or thought he would because _Amy Brookheimer didn’t cry_.

Even when he slept with her sister, she didn’t cry.

Crying and Amy were two things that were so far apart they couldn’t even be considered in the same realm.

Except here they were.

Amy was crying.

“Amy—“

“I just can’t do it.”

“What happened?”

“I-I-I came to work and everyone was talking about the baby daddy rumors. I tried to ignore it but…the interns were gossiping about it and I flipped out on them and then Selina was just being— _erg_!” she screeched and Dan rubbed at his ears because she could be so goddamn loud.

He thought back to that day in the parking garage.

“Amy—“

“I hate this. I hate working for her so much. I hate being talked about. I hate that this is making me so angry. You should’ve heard what the interns were saying…” She trailed off and he watched her reach in for another chip and stuff it in her mouth.

“Amy, we can fix this.” He said gently moving the Doritos away from her and to the side.

He didn’t want her eating that shitty junk food. He didn’t spend an hour at Whole fucking Foods every week so she could eat hydrogenated oils.

She looked at him through huge, tear-stained eyes and suddenly he really wanted to kiss her.

He wanted to wrap his arms around her and tear out anyone’s eyes who messed with her.

What the fuck was happening to him?

His eyes darted back to her lips and he blamed it on being sex-starved.

“How?” she asked.

“First, we’ll move you to BKD Consulting like we wanted to originally. It’ll still appear like you’re working for Selina, but you can focus on other things. We wanted you to come work with us anyway.”

“Then why are we still with Selina?”

Dan smirked, “because we’re going to make her president—again.”

She rolled her eyes, but chose not to say anything.

“Now, who are the interns who were gossiping?”

Amy shrugged because she didn’t know their fucking names.

“Then we’ll fire them all and hire new ones tomorrow.”

She nodded slowly and he watched her reach into her purse beside her and take out a hand wipe to get rid of the excess Dorito cheese.

“And then we can do a press release for the baby daddy stuff.” He added quietly as his mind began to race for the right wording.

“Thanks for coming.” She whispered ignoring what he’d just said and focusing on her hands instead of on him.

He smiled slightly and then before he could think twice about it, he leaned forward and kissed her. Even though it wasn’t the right time or place, he wasn’t going to let that stop him from making a move.

While he wasn’t feeling like his normal self, he was still Dan fucking Egan.

The kiss was gentlier than he had anticipated it being—he was constantly surprised around her—but she quickly deepened it by pulling him closer by the lapels of his blazer.

She tasted like salt and temptation.

His hand rested on her cheek and the other rested on her stomach. Both of her hands were holding him close, closer than he’d been to her in months. It wasn’t hurried or passionate, but gentle and soothing. He felt her tongue graze his bottom lip and then he noticed an odd sensation on her belly under his hand.

Pulling back slightly, he looked down at his hand to find that the little girl—Amy couldn’t stop bringing it up when they had found out—inside of her was kicking.

He glanced back up at her and found she was smiling softly watching him closely.

Staring into her blue eyes, he leaned back in and found her lips again. They sat there like that making out for what felt like hours. It was only when the crotched position he was in became too much for him that he finally broke away.

“Amy…” he trailed off not knowing what to say.

“Dan.” She replied softly.

They stared at each other for a long moment and then her phone vibrated on the floor beside her. They sighed when they both saw it was a long-winded text from Selina.

“I’ll start the press release.” He said quietly as he moved to stand before helping her get up.

“And start on finding me an office at BKD.” She added.

He smirked and nodded before leaning down to kiss her once more before they emerged into the real world again where they had responsibilities and other bullshit to attend to.

But all Dan could focus on was how things had just changed with the smallest of gestures between him and Amy.

* * *

 

Since the closet, things begun to shift.

Amy was suddenly sweeter—at least as sweet as she could be—and their bickering was more sexually charged and flirty.

Dan was finally getting laid and it was a fucking miracle.

And even though they had to get creative when they had sex, Dan had never wanted a woman as badly as he wanted Amy. He figured it would fizzle out because he finally got what he’d wanted. Although, somewhere in his subconscious, he knew that wasn’t true. He had already had sex with her after all.

For a number of years.

On and off…

But it didn’t seem like he was ever sated with her.

It was intense and passionate and he felt overwhelmed by it—even consumed.

He wasn’t sure how Amy felt, but he knew that it was somewhere close to how he did. She couldn’t seem to keep her hands off of him either and that was okay because _they were good_.

Until Amy collapsed at work.

She had been commuting between Selina’s office and BKD. Selina’s demands and snide comments were causing her a lot more anger and irritation than they normally would because of the pregnancy and she wanted to quit. However, Dan had convinced her to just split her time between the two places.

While the initial plan was to just move her to BKD, it was difficult to do when Selina was still their client.

By splitting the time, though, it still looked like she was working with Selina when really BKD was poaching her. She was happier because she was able to actually do stuff and Dan was happy that they got to work together again.

It was a win-win.

It was a Thursday and she was at Selina’s office preparing the beginning steps of their plan to launch the campaign. She and Dan had put it together and she’d been so excited to stop talking about it and finally put it into motion.

She hadn’t been feeling that well in the last few days with swollen feet and ankles. But that wasn’t anything new since she’d had those issues since she began to gain weight. She had even opted to work from home yesterday, but Selina had thrown a hissy fit and she had to go in anyway.

And now here they were and Amy had collapsed at work.

He had been at a lunch with Ben and Kent talking about the upcoming campaign when Amy’s name popped up on his phone. He answered it without hesitation as Ben and Kent talked about how whipped he’d become just because he’d impregnated Amy.

“Ames.” He answered wiping his mouth with a napkin.

“Uh…no…Richard Splett actually! I was told to call you.” Richard answered in his usual jovial tone.

“What? Where’s Amy?” Dan asked setting down the bite he was about to take of his salad.

“She uh…she has something called—oh wait! Sorry! I’m told you’re needed at the hospital.” Richard rambled.

“What? Is she okay?” Dan asked reaching for his wallet to quickly pay and start to leave.

“Well…uh we’re not really sure. Gary found her passed out—“

“Wait! What? Passed out? What hospital is she at?”

“Gary! Do you know—“ Richard’s voice was cut off by shuffling and then Dan was surprised to hear Selina on the phone.

“Dan? Amy’s at George Washington University Hospital. She fucking passed out. Gary nearly wet himself when he found her.” Selina paused and he heard her take a drink of something. “This is _your_ fucking fault, you know! If you hadn’t gotten her pregnant with your Satan sperm—“

Dan hung up on her so fast he knew he was probably going to get a lecture later on. He looked at Ben and Kent for a minute and they stared back waiting for him to do something.

“What happened?” Ben asked finally.

“Amy’s at George Washington University Hospital.” He said blinking rapidly.

It was like his mind suddenly went blank.

The noise in the restaurant had turned down to almost mute and he couldn’t seem to focus on one specific thing. It was like someone had turned off the noise and the lights and his senses weren’t working properly.

He wasn’t sure what to do.

He needed to get to her, but he also needed to pay and he still had grilled salmon coming and he had a meeting this afternoon and his vision was starting to spot in the corner of his eyes and he wasn’t breathing right.

He wasn’t breathing.

He couldn’t breath.

Fuck, it was London all over again.

And then suddenly all of the noise was turned back on and Ben and Kent were hoisting him up and helping him walk out of the restaurant. Once the cold air hit him, he seemed to jump back into action and dash to the corner of the street to hail a cab.

He didn’t look back to see where Ben and Kent were, but he didn’t care since he’d forgotten that it was lunch rush hour and traffic was all jammed up. Eagerly and angrily, he kept checking his phone to see if she’d call or someone had called. He just needed to get to her and make sure she was okay.

She had to be okay.

They had to be okay.

Finally, after what seemed like 20 years, but was actually 10 minutes. They arrived at the hospital and Dan ran in to the reception desk. He quickly asked for Amy’s information and then he followed the nurse’s instructions and headed toward the room. When he arrived outside Amy’s room, he realized he was shaking and he wondered if he was having another panic attack, but just hadn’t realized it.

Taking a deep breath, he moved to open the door and then realized that he wasn’t sure what he was walking into.

Would Amy be okay?

Would she be awake?

Should he prepare for the worst?

He tried not to think about the last one and instead pushed forward to find Amy angrily flipping though channels and talking into her cell phone.

“…fucking no! It’s not on there! Fucking fix it!” she said noticing him out of the corner of her eye and then he watched as she tossed both the phone and the remote on the bed in irritation.

“What happened?” he asked walking slowly over toward her.

Whatever it was that he had been imagining, Amy sitting up and looking pissed off wasn’t it.

“I fell or something.” She said in annoyance.

“You _fell_? Richard said you were passed out and Gary found you.”

“I mean I was on the ground so…same thing.” Amy said shrugging.

Dan reached over and clasped her shoulders in his hands so he could look at her. Really look at her, in the eyes. His eyes roamed over her face; her blue eyes that were glowering at him, her fair eyebrows, the pink coloring of her lips, the alabaster skin that seemed so smooth and perfect.

The tenseness of her shoulders seemed to relax him and the worry that seemed to blinded him dispersed as anger set in at how badly she had scared him.

It wasn’t fair that she would cause so much anger for the remotest possibility that something could have happened to her.

It was bullshit.

She shouldn’t have that much control over him.

She didn’t even _realize_ she had that much control over him.

“What the fuck are you doing? You’re being fucking weird.” She said shaking his hands from her shoulders and sitting up further in bed. “Can you go find where Richard went? Selina, Gary, and him are somewhere and they have my shit. I want my shit, Dan. I need to make sure that—“

“Amy, tell me what happened.” He said hating the anxious note that had dropped into his voice. He hoped she heard how angry his tone was instead of how fucking scared.

She rolled her eyes, “my blood pressure is all fucked up. I have something called preeclampsia. I need to be put on bed rest. That’s all. Now, can you get me my laptop and shit?”

Dan blinked and then sat down beside her legs on the bed.

He stared down at the scratchy blanket material and listened as Amy began to rattle off every thing she had to do in the next few days to get them ready.

“Amy…you need to slow down.” He said quietly.

She frowned, “if this is some other bullshit about how I need to—“

“No, this is me telling you to slow down. You’re almost eight months pregnant. You can’t keep going like this.” He ran a hand through his hair and looked toward the curtain that was separating the room.

He briefly wondered if another patient was in there.

“It’s not healthy for you! And this is my fault. I should never have suggested doing BKD and Selina.” He said more to himself than to her.

“Dan, you’re over reacting. Preeclampsia is just a fancy term for high blood pressure. Don’t get all melodramatic. When you came in here, I was having flashbacks to that time I took you to the hospital in London. Don’t do that. Don’t go all London on me.” She said grabbing her phone and begin to scroll through it.

He rolled his eyes and grabbed the remote to shut the TV off. Then he put his hand on the top of her phone and slowly lowered her hand and third limb to her lap. Then he wrapped his much larger hand around the device and her fingers and looked her straight in the eye, so she knew that he was being serious.

“I’m taking over the campaign.” He said quietly.

“What?” she shrieked.

He closed his eyes for a brief moment, “you’re stressed out and you’re growing a fucking baby. You need to calm the fuck down and the best way to do it is if I take over some of the planning.”

“Fuck no! You can’t do this! We’ve been working—“

“ _We have_. _We’ve_ been doing this as a team! I’m not here to fuck you over, Amy. I’m here to help you.”

“You already _have_ fucked me over and now we have to deal with it for the rest of our lives.” She said pointing to her large belly.

Dan rolled his eyes and stood up to begin pacing round the small hospital room. “I’m doing this for you own good.” He exclaimed looking over at her with pleading eyes. He didn’t want to have an argument about this, but he couldn’t stop himself from being so worried about her, especially because it seemed like she didn’t care at all.

And that scared him most of all.

He wasn't doing this without her.

She needed to take care of herself.

“My own good? What the fuck, Dan? This is a career making opportunity! You’re stealing this from me! Just like you stole campaign manager the first time! Just like you scurried your way into every other aspect of my life.”

“You should be thanking me!”

“Why would I thank you for this? Has this been your plan all along? Have you been waiting nearly a decade to finally steal my job and make me look like an even bigger idiot than I already feel like I am? Was this your plan all along when you started with Selina all those years ago. Did you plan to get me pregnant and seduce me and fuck me over so badly that I’d be laughed out of D.C? That is some Machiavellian bullshit, Daniel. I’ve never been fucked over more than you have fucking fucked me the fuck over.”

“What the fuck are you talking about? You’re fucking delusional, Ames! Jesus fuck! If I didn’t fucking love you so much, maybe I wouldn’t be this fucking scared about what was going on. Do you know how shitty it was to get that bullshit phone called from Richard? Do you know that I felt like London all over again and because of you! You have to take care of yourself; you cannot leave me fucking alone with this shitstorm of a situation” Dan yelled.

He wasn’t sure if he was talking about the campaign, Selina, or the baby.

But the idea of doing any of this without Amy wasn’t something he wanted to imagine.

And then the room fell silent.

Amy stared at him with her mouth wide open and her eyes bugging out. He remembered when she’d looked at him after he flipped out about abortion when they couldn’t pick a week and he almost wanted to laugh at how absurd their situation had become. He opened his own mouth a few times and then turned away so the look of shock on her face wasn’t emblazed in his head.

“Fuck.” He said quietly.

“You can’t take it back.” She exclaimed.

“I—“

“What’s going on in here?” A nurse asked popping her head in.

“Nothing.” Dan said hastily.

“Dad’s just worried.” Amy said pointing to her belly.

The nurse looked between them and then smiled tentatively. “Just keep it down.”

Dan and Amy nodded and watched her leave before turning back to each other.

“Can we just table all this bullshit and focus on you getting better?” Dan asked taking a step toward the bed.

She gave him a suspicious look, “what do you mean ‘table it?’ Is that just some way to say you want to forget about it?”

Dan smirked and stopped beside the bed.

She stared at him, “did you really mean that?”

He shrugged trying to be nonchalant, “I’m surprised you didn’t know by now.”

“No, I did.”

Silence engulfed the room again and each of them avoided the other’s gaze.

“So what happens now?” Dan asked needing to break the silence.

Amy shrugged and leaned back against the bed, “I guess…I have to be on bed rest…so I’ll work from home and you’ll take over the last few steps of preparing the campaign with everything run by me, of course.”

“Of course.”

“And then sometime in the next month, we have a baby.”

Dan nodded slowly, “and you tell me that you love me.” He added giving her a smug grin.

She rolled her eyes playfully, “if you don’t already know that I love you, then you’re an even bigger shit than I thought.”

He gave her the middle finger and then moved toward the door.

“Where are you going?” Amy asked.

“To get your shit from the two little pigs and the fucking big bad wolf.” He said glancing at her sitting in the hospital bed.

“Oh. Okay.” He hesitated in the doorway and then moved back toward the bed to give her a hard kiss on the lips before leaving the room.

He returned shortly after getting her stuff and talking to the doctor about bed rest and preeclampsia and the rest of the pregnancy. He tried to remain positive—even though he was a nervous wreck inside—while he sat with her and they watched CNN and worked from her hospital room.

They didn’t say much other than talk about work, but the next few months weighed heavily on their minds. Dan’s worrying had reached an all new high and Amy…she wasn’t sure how was she going to handle balancing being a mother and a powerful woman.

All they could do was be grateful for having each other.

Because when the shit hit the fan—and it generally did in their lives—at least they could count on one another.

No matter what happened, they were a team.

And that’s all that mattered for now.


End file.
